Top Ten Tuesday: Books I enjoyed but rarely talk about | #8

Happy Tuesday! It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve done one of these and I’m pretty pumped about this topic. Time to talk up some books!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by ThatArtstyReaderGirl!

---

The Fold by Peter Clines – I bought this book back in I think 2015 or so. Basically it was a cover-buy originally. I was walking down a boardwalk at the beach and this was displayed in a window of a local bookshop. I literally stopped in my tracks, went in, and bought it. I don’t know what it was about the cover but it was mesmerizing. And honestly, this picture doesn’t give it justice. It’s brighter, it’s textured, it gives the illusion of depth. It’s a really nice cover. But then I read the book after and I loved it. It follows a group conducting a study on what they call the Albuquerque Door, a device that lets you fold space and time to travel hundreds of miles in one step. And I don’t want to tell you anything else because spoilers, man. But this was so good.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss – Anyone who has followed my blog for any length of time will probably raise their eyebrows at this one. That’s because I hate book two. I despise it. And my rage at that one often overshadows how much I actually liked the first one. I think because I liked the first one so much, the second one was even more of a let down as a result. (Will I still read the third? Yes, but that’s not the point). For those of you who somehow still don’t know what this is about, this book tells a ‘let me tell you my life story’-style narration by the main character named Kvothe, who recalls his childhood and early adulthood across three books. This one starts with when he was little, and goes up through after he enters magic school. There’s so, so much more to it than that, but as a fantasy, this book was a solid beginning book and I do recommend this one, at least.

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee – This one I rarely mention just because it’s so rare that I read nonfiction in the first place. But this one was really great. I learned so much about the history of biology, about controversial practices my (USA’s) government used to do, about all the bits and bobs about genes that I didn’t know already, it was really neat. When I was in school for my computer science degree, I focused in bioinformatics, so I knew a good bit of the basics already, and while this book didn’t really go into super technical stuff it definitely broadened my knowledge base. This was entertaining and fun and I’d really recommend it to anyone.

Ralph and the Pixie by G. S. Monks (which now that I’m looking at it, the author might be writing under J. J. Stevenson now?) – This book has so much nostalgia for me and every time I think about it I get the warm fuzzies. Which… is weird considering it’s really not a warm fuzzy book. When I first read this book, it was back when it was on fictionpress in maybe 2006 or so? I read it as a teenager and remember adoring it. It actually ended up getting self-published, and when I mentioned liking it on here a few years ago, the author sent me a copy, which I appreciated so much. This book follows a human, a pixie, a chaotic political system, and a king obsessed with immortality. The world in takes place in to me, in addition to nostalgic, is rather whimsical in a dark kind of way. I dig it. Man, just writing about it makes me wanna reread it.

Hotel Africa by Hee Jung Park – This is a first volume of a manga series (which… I think there are only two or three) but essentially it’s a character study, and it’s super neat. It follows Elvis, a young man living with his mother in a hotel out in the middle of the desert in Utah, and all the people who come to stay there. It’s nice and slow paced but each character’s story really pulls at the heartstrings and I absolutely loved this.

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay – As I mentioned, nonfiction isn’t normally my thing, so I’m gonna mention a few here. Bad Feminist is a collection of essays talking about Feminism and how it’s still growing and changing today, and how all the different subgroups within have somewhat differing ideas, how those merge, and how they can’t. And it’s funny, to boot. I really liked this one.

The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan – I read this back when I was a teenager, back when ‘dystopian ya novels’ were just beginning to be a thing. I think this one was… post hunger games, pre anything else? Not sure. Anyways, I have a fair bit of nostalgia for this book. It follows a young girl in a religious commune, one that is surrounded on all sides by fences. And on the other side of those fences, stand thousands and thousands of zombies. I particularly liked this one due to the religious twist. It’s not just a group of survivors, it’s a cult living in the apocalypse. It’s neat.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler – I feel that overall this is a highly mentioned book in the book community. I just never talk about it for some reason though, which is a shame because I really liked this one. It follows a young black woman who is thrown back in time and appears in Maryland, smack in the middle of slave-holding America. This book was rough to read. Not because of the writing, the writing was excellent, but this book definitely got deep into a bunch of serious topics, including (obviously) racism, sexism, and all of that. It was a really good read and I recommend this one.

You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day – I chose this one mostly because it resonates with me so much. Felicia Day is well known among the nerdy online community. She’s done some acting – she was in The Guild, a webshow turned tv show about a gaming guild in a world of warcraft-esque online game, which is where I know her the best, but she’s also been in Supernatural and various other roles on tv and movies. But mostly she’s known for being a geek. And this book, her memoir, talks about her growing up and being one, and it really just hit home a lot. I really liked this.

Our Dining Table by Mito Ori – This is my most recent favorite manga, and I wanna reread it just writing about it now. It’s a one-shot, a single volume story about a man who cannot eat in front of other people due to family issues, and another man and his little brother that slowly break through to him through sharing cooking time and eventually, meals. This is a fluffy story with a bit of romance, and it’s just so pleasant and wholesome and nice that I can’t help but love it. This one is really super cute.

---

And that’s it! I really liked this topic. It’s nice mentioning some books that I feel like deserve way more attention than they get. Go read all of these! Happy reading!